Industries with large numbers of union members experienced declining rates too
In the private sector, five industries accounted for 81 percent of union members in 2015. Of these industries, private education and health services had the largest number of union members at 1.9 million; this includes a large number of union members who work in private hospitals, like nurses, and private school employees (public schools and hospitals are excluded). Manufacturing (1.4 million), transportation and utilities (1.1 million), construction (940,000), and wholesale and retail trade (871,000) also had relatively large numbers of union members in 2015. For comparison, the sixth largest industry, leisure and hospitality had 389,000 union members.
Transportation, which has a relatively high union membership rate, declined by 6.7 percentage points from 2000 to 2015. Union membership rates in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail trade also declined. In contrast, the unionization rate in education and health services edged up by 0.8 percentage point. Industry data on a comparable basis are available back to 2000.